the 18th hole…

So today is Valentines day and most people seem to be slightly sad about it. Even if they receive a gift or a kiss, people still look around them and wonder what else there might be for them out there.

The photo below is from the 18th hole at Pebble Beach where there was a big golf tournament this weekend. I was happy to be invited as a guest and had a great time visiting my friends. In the end I am just as happy to be home with Rosie who has a mild case of fleas…. After a bath and a treat, she is recovering. I can’t say the same about me.

We all dread Valentines and yet, we all hope for some gesture of love on this day. The world can appear empty just as my photo of the 18th hole.

Inside each of us, however, lies an enormous secret. The secret of our imaginations and our dreams which can provide a respite from the commercialization of love and life. Our imagination is the rich place where we can go to find joy and we go on this journey alone. Some of us never look for the map to this place. Others of us find it easlily in our childhood and remember the route all of our lives. Some of us are lucky and know the path is there and we search for it. When we find the way it is often circuitous and lengthy and we wonder how we will ever find it a second time but we do. If we practice it becomes an idyllic journey that we can take at any time or in any place we choose.